light intensity

Since we had labs to do on light bulbs and resistance, I finally noticed that I actually did have a switch in my house that had a variable resistor. When you turn the knobs clockwise, the intensity of the light increases. This is because Resistance varies directly with distance, so if one charge is connected to the needle and the opposite charge is connected to the left end of the knob, as the distance between the two grows, the resistance increases. V/R is equal to the amount of current at a point, so when R increases, the current decreases. This decrease in current causes the power supplied to the bulb to decrease because P=IV. Less power means that the light will be less intense. If we didn't go over this in physics, I never would've noticed that I had this kind of switch, let alone figured out just how it's able to vary light intensity.

shoes and carpets

Well, I've never actually gotten shocked at home from static electricity, but I remember all the times it happened in Las Vegas. Pretty much from the time I walked into the hotel I started getting shocked every time I touched someone else or a door knob. I drag my feet a lot so I must have been picking up a lot of electrons from the carpet that wanted to be released because the body naturally wants to be neutral, not charged. Besides dragging my feet, the weather conditions over there probably helped build the static electricity to levels higher than they are in Hawaii. The humidity over here must allow the electrons to leak off at a faster pace than in Vegas. I guess all I have to do is stay away from really dry or cold places.

leftovers...

Well, everyone was out at a Superbowl party and left me home to fend for myself so i ate leftovers. That's when I saw the saran wrap on the bowl and remembered static friction from the last test. When rolling the wrap out of the container, electrons are pulled from the level below and the top layer is positive, which is why it sticks so well to itself. This is because the posititve charged side and the negative charged sides are attracted to each other. And especially because the refrigerator is so cold, the saran wrap must stick to it better (because the physics room needed to be colder for the lab to work better). Then, when I crumpled it up and threw the saran wrap into the trash, it didn't stick to itself because the electrons from the negative side transferred to the positive side so it was no longer polar.